Six Teams from UPM selected among Top 20 for #ShellSelamatSampai Varsity Challenge 2021

Launched for the first time in 2016, #ShellSelamatSampai is a road safety program to drive road safety awareness and behavioral change especially among motorists and youths who are the highest at-risk groups for road fatalities. Within the program is an inter-varsity road safety innovation competition where students are tasked with producing prototypes of technologies which improve road safety. Since its inception, students involved with the program have produced innovations in reducing accidents by facilitating overtaking in risky situations, combating driving distractions and driver fatigue, and increasing visibility of motorcycle riders.  In its previous iteration, the Varsity Challenge was expanded to all 20 public universities and 6 technical-based private universities nationwide. 

Team PRoSS (left) and Team ELRITZ (right) representing UPM in #SSSVarsity Challenge 2019

UPM is no stranger to the #ShellSelamatSampai Varsity Challenge as it has enjoyed some success in 2019 when two teams from UPM managed to successfully get to the final round of the challenge. Team PRoSS (led by Assoc Prof Dr Mohd Khair Hassan and Dr Hafiz Rashidi Ramli ) won 3^rd place with their invention of a system that detects dangerous CO gases that have leaked into the cabin, measures alcohol content in the driver’s breath and alerts authorities when accidents or crashes occurs. Team ELRITZ (led by Assoc Prof Dr Samsul Bahari Mohd. Noor) won the People’s Choice Award with their invention of their Anti-Drowsiness Alert System (ADAS) system that uses a wearable device together with visual, audio, and haptic cues to help keep drivers awake. 

UPM teams presenting their winner’s medals and awards after the final round in 2019

For this year’s competition, six teams from UPM have been selected into the Top 20 round of the competition. In this stage, Shell provides each team with RM1000 to transform their ideas into the form of prototypes in a period of just 8 weeks. The teams will then have to present their work in the form of a formal report and a video summary. These will be evaluated by a panel of judges who will then select the Top 5 teams to progress to the final round.  

The competition has managed to attract the interest of the engineering students in UPM, especially from the Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering which make up the entirety of the six selected teams. The details of each team from UPM and their innovative idea is as listed below:

The overall project coordinator for the competition is Dr Hafiz Rashidi Ramli, whose main aim is to ensure each team has everything they need to produce their best output for the competition. Aside from the invention themselves, social media is also considered an important aspect of the competition. Therefore, we would like to invite everyone in the UPM family to please support our teams by following their Facebook page and liking their videos on YouTube. Links to each team’s Facebook page can be found at the IEEE SB UPM webpage here.

Tarikh Input: 07/10/2021 | Kemaskini: 07/10/2021 | khairulazman